The Punjab government has directed provincial police to treat on merit four men accused of kidnapping and gangraping two foreign women, who were rescued after a distress call from Spain this week, a police official said on Sunday, adding that it had emerged that one of the accused persons was a relative of a senior government functionary.
Details of the Incident
The case emerged this week after the victims, a Dutch and a Venezuelan national, were rescued by police from a location in Lahore’s upscale Defense neighborhood. The women had traveled to Pakistan after receiving an invitation from a local acquaintance, Ahmad Raza Dar, whom they had met in Singapore in October 2025.
Speaking at a press conference, Lahore police’s Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Faisal Kamran said their priority was to ensure the recovery of the women after which they carried out raids in Sargodha and several other locations, and found the family tree of one of the suspects. He said the inhabitants of one of the raided houses told investigators that the family of the suspect used to “live in the house some time back on rent and probably [he] is some relative of the deputy prime minister [Ishaq Dar].”
Police Response and Orders
The official said they immediately confirmed from Ahmad’s family and they shared his contact number, following which the suspect was tracked and taken into custody. “When you realize that the relative of a high-profile person of your country is involved in it, so you convey this to your senior officer and tell the senior command,” DIG Kamran told reporters in Lahore. “It was brought into the notice of the CCPO (Capital City Police Officer), IG (inspector general) and it was subsequently given in the notice of the government. And from there (government), strict orders came that ‘whatever you do legally with any criminal, do it immediately’.”
Ransom and Assault
The two foreign women were abducted on June 29 by a group of men, Ahmad, Sikandar Aziz Khan, Hassan Raza and Sajid Ali, who demanded a $1.5 million ransom for their release and repeatedly assaulted them during their captivity, according to police. The rescue operation was launched after the father of one of the women made an emergency call to Pakistani police from Spain. Investigators tracked the suspects using municipal surveillance cameras and recovered the women within two hours.
Legal Proceedings
A Pakistani court on Friday granted police a five-day physical remand of the four men. Samples had been collected from the two women and the suspects were due to undergo forensic testing to determine whether the samples matched, Deputy District Public Prosecutor Nazar Iqbal told Arab News on Friday. “The allegation is of rape,” he said after Friday’s court proceedings. “Gang rape took place because there were multiple people, more than one,” Iqbal said. “Additionally, they had kept them hidden at a certain place and then there was a demand for ransom.”
